BARON SUZUKI DEAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 5

BARON SUZUKI DEAD

japan's last war-time PREMIER HEAD OF CRISIS CABINET Rec 11 p.m. TOKIO, Apl. 17. Japan’s last war-time Premier, Admiral the Baron Kantaro Suzuki died to-day, aged 80. Baron Suzuki, who claimed he was opposed to the war, resigned the premiership immediately after Japan’s surrender, after holding the office for five months, Baron Suzuki's Capinet, which contained fewer military men than that of his predecessor—General Kunaiki Koiso—was by no means the “peace Cabinet ” which some foreign observers expected, and included some “ violently anti-American ” Ministers. In May, as a result of the German and Italian surrender, Baron . Suzuki’s Cabinet abrogated all treaties with European countries, and in June it asked for and received dictatorial powers. Within another two months, on August 14, 1945, Japan’s crisis, after repeated bombings by American and British planes, the Russian advance in

Manchuria, and the climactic dropping of two atomic bombs, ended in uncom ditional surrender. Baron Suzuki thereupon tendered his resignation because of “ the new situation created by Japanese acceptance of the Potsdam declaration." The New York Herald-Tribune, in an editorial at the time of Baron Suzuki’s appointment, said: "A moderate (Baron Suzuki) in Japan often is a person just as devoted to the idea of conquering the world as anyone in the Empire. The difference between a moderate and an extremist frequently has been that the extremist frequently believed the Japanese could enslave the world in a year or two, while the moderate was of the opinion that it might take several decades.”